Research Alerts & Press Releases

Hackett Offers Best Practice Strategies for Responding To the Global Economic Crisis at its 19th Annual Conference

Conference Offers Preview of 2009 Book of Numbers Research; Also Features Executive Presentations from Alcoa, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Renault, Unisys, and Others

ATLANTA & LONDON, March 24, 2009 - How are the world's most successful companies reducing cost, managing working capital, and creating competitive advantage during these challenging recessionary times? What changes are they making to efficiently and strategically manage key General & Administrative (G&A) areas such as finance, IT, procurement, and HR given unprecedented volatility in business demand? These questions are at the heart of the agenda for The Hackett Group's 19th Annual Best Practices Conference, at the InterContinental Hotel in Atlanta May 13-14, 2009.

The Hackett Group (NASDAQ: HCKT), a global strategic advisory firm, is a leader in best practice advisory, benchmarking, and transformation consulting services including shared services, offshoring, and outsourcing advice.

This year's Hackett conference, entitled "Business Disrupted: How World-Class Companies Mitigate Recession Risk and Create Competitive Advantage," brings together speakers from more than a dozen of the world's most successful companies, including Alcoa, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Renault, and Unisys, for two days of in-depth sessions.

The invitation-only event will also feature previews of Hackett's 2009 Book of Numbers™ research in finance, IT, procurement, and HR. The research quantifies spending, staffing, economic return, and other key efficiency and effectiveness metrics of world-class and typical performers. Finally, Hackett will spotlight findings from three newly-completed performance studies examining trends and best practices in: cash flow forecasting; cost control; and how best to organize back-office functions to deliver the greatest value.

"Today's uncertain economy has driven executives to focus on business value like never before," said Hackett President Wayne Mincey. "At this year's conference we're spotlighting how world-class companies are not only effective and efficient but also nimble enough to respond quickly to dynamic market conditions. There's a lot to learn from these companies and how they've optimized their back-office organizational models, technology platforms, and process frameworks to deliver the greatest value to the business."

This year's conference will offer attendees the opportunity to explore the following topics, and others: how to improve working capital and reduce reliance on credit; how world-class companies reduce cost and complexity and create flexibility; strategies for leveraging low cost labor markets; and how to optimally leverage key effectiveness drivers including enterprise performance management, talent management, IT business value management, and supplier management.

About The Hackett Group

The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT), a global strategic advisory firm, is a leader in best practice advisory, benchmarking, and transformation consulting services, including shared services, offshoring and outsourcing advice. Utilizing best practices and implementation insights from more than 4,000 benchmarking engagements, executives use Hackett's empirically based approach to quickly define and prioritize initiatives to enable world-class performance. Through its REL brand, Hackett offers working capital solutions focused on delivering significant cash flow improvements. Through its Hackett Technology Solutions group, Hackett offers business application consulting services that helps maximize returns on IT investments. Hackett has worked with 2,700 major corporations and government agencies, including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 73% of the Fortune 100, 73% of the DAX 30 and 45% of the FTSE 100.

Founded in 1991, The Hackett Group was acquired by Answerthink, Inc. in 1997. Answerthink was renamed The Hackett Group, Inc. in 2008. The Hackett Group has global offices in the United States, Europe and Asia/Pacific.